//OOC: This is a training plot line for SCRA Militisiya recruits to test and demonstrate their RP ability. Posts will be evaluated as part of the overall final selection process.
Rules:
1. You are alone, do not interact or RP with any other player/character on the planet or off of it. Trainers may interact with you, but infrequently.
2. No power gaming. Try to keep realism intact as it helps maintain game immersion.
3. No less than five individual posts consisting of 150 words each. They can be written as a daily journal, as first person stories, or third person stories. Your writing style is encouraged.
4. Spell check and grammar check, if English is not your native language, have someone you trust help you out with it.
5. There are beasties, and Raiders on JiangXi (the latter are survivors of the Phantom attack, and very hostile considering the fact that the Volkhan recently purged most of the human population of JiangXi outside of the three settlements: New Hong Kong, L'Acadie, and Santiago de la Omega).
6. Your starting equipment is as follows:
One survival knife. Food for two days. canteen with water for two days. a gas mask. Light body armour. One assualt rifle of your choice (Eastern Bloc recommended), 60 rounds. One pistol of your choice, one magazine/cylinder of ammunition. 32 Matches. A waterproof poncho. A compass. One TAC-LINK direct to the CPW-Social.Credit only. Anti-Rads for Five days. A Flare gun with a single flare.
Everything else you will have to find on the ground.
//
New Hangzhou, the shattered remains of a city of ten million people, nuked beyond recognition by orbital bombardments some two years earlier. Half the city lay in a great crater, obliterated into a lethal lump of radiation, while the rest remained. Skeletons of skyscrapers, shattered shopping malls, and dust. Crumbling highways, and refuse of a life long gone, now. Faded forever.
It had been hoped that JiangXi would have been the restoration of one of Earth's oldest cultures, a new China. A dream long since eradicated by the Phantoms in a fit of vengeance. The Chinese way of life now existed as only an echo, a ghost story shared by the survivors.
The wind stirred a flag flying beside a relatively untouched camp set up in a broad city junction. BJ02 jeeps with the AK-1 turrets on the back, forming roadblocks around brand new field tents, still and silent save for the buzzing of flies picking over the carcasses of the recently dead.
One of the Volkhan's kill squads, marines laying in dried pools of their own blood, shell casings all around indicating how ferociously the Riot team had fought. While the Riot equipped marines may have had some luck eradicating the remnant survivors of the nuclear holocaust in the rural areas, in New Hangzhou it had been them that had been eradicated.
Far down a side street, footsteps echoed, someone running. Staying to the shadows, refusing to be seen lest one of the Raiders lurked about, or one of JiangXi's deadly indigenous lifeforms that had come to reclaim the city as it's territory was stalking.
New Hangzhou may have resembled a tomb, but it was far from dead.
A young officer, the rank on his uniform denoting him as a Major, sits calmly in pilots chair of a Storm class gunboat. The gunboat is quietly making it's way from Stevaspol Depot to Zvezdny Gorodok. Sitting next to him in the Co-Pilot's chair is Chief Pasha Byk, one of the finest Mechanic's the Coalition has ever seen. A man the young officer has learnt a great deal from.
[color=#FFFF00]"So what your saying is that the problem isn't with actually collecting the gas collectors but splitting it down?"
[color=#FF0000]"Da, then combining it into what we need - Usable H-Fuel. Could take weeks.
A beep interrupts their conversation, denoting an urgent a transmission. Ling flicked the communicator on and a video stream from General Alvarez fills the overhead monitor between the Pilot's chairs.
[color=#FFFF00]"General Alvarez! Good to see you comrade. How can we be of assistance?"
[color=#FF9900]"Major Ling, you're required to lead a little field trip hermano. We have a new band of recruits just *dying* to see the joys of JiangXi. You understand si?" "Lijie comrade. Loud and clear. We're already on our way to Gorodok." "Good. The Social Credit is docked up there, you will take her down to JiangXi. The Xi'an is required for another mission."
[color=#FFFFFF]Ling was a little uneasy with having to take a hold full of new recruits down in a ship other than his own. For all its fancy technology, touch screen monitors and silver and blue polish, the Xi'an was Ling's first command. A ship he knew and trusted. He finished his briefing from Alvarez, ended the transmission and looked down from the monitor. The Social Credit was a fine ship, a ship that Ling was very envious of until he got his own.
[color=#FFFF00]"Could be worse, we could be going in the Karchov!"
[color=#FFFFFF]Ling and Pasha laughed. Although the Karchov came off the production line around the same time as the Xi'an, it was a hopeless ship. It was rightly scrapped after it's total system failure in New London. The Xi'an was now approaching its touchdown on Gorodok. As he swung the agile gunboat down to its landing platform - Ling could still see the same scorch marks from the previous coups. He laughed, perhaps they were badges of honour for this space station?
[color=#FFFF00]"Right, Lt Xu. Ensure everything works perfectly by the time I get back. Oh and try and fix that starboard thruster again, it still feels slightly out of balance."
[color=#FFFFFF]He saluted the Lieutenant and received a professional send off from him and his crew. Pasha and Ling left the Xi'an and walked slowly over to the Social Credit. It struck Ling very quickly how much older the ship looked. It's armour was redder and duller than the Xi'ans and it had more dinks, and scorch marks. A band of recruits were packing their gear and milling around, they were oblivious to him standing there. Ling thought to himself.. No.. He wouldn't scare them quite yet. He would check out the SoCred first.
[color=#FFFF00]"Oh my...."
[color=#FFFFFF]What greeted Ling was an obviously old vessel. The inside of which seemed to be held together by sheer luck and duct tape. He moved towards the Cockpit where he found a modern looking communication system right next to a dated weapons grid. He sighed when he looked at the chair. Duct tape had been used to cover the rips and tears in the chair. He sat down in it and fiddled with the instruments. Old dials, buttons and levers greeted him. One thing was for sure, he would truly be flying the SoCred. It had very little, if any, computer assistance. He moved back out of the ship where he saw the recruits still ignoring him.
[color=#FFFF00]"RIGHT YOU FECKLESS MORONS!"
[color=#FFFFFF]He drew his Jian. He hoped that the sight of the short sword scared the recruits enough.
[color=#FFFF00]"Saddles are up in 30minutes. That's how long it's probably going to take for me to do the preflight. I'll give you exactly the same treatment as the last batch of recruits.. if you're not onboard by the time I shut the door.. I'll leave you in a crater for the deck staff to clear up. UNDERSTOOD?!"
[color=#FFFFFF]He turned and headed back up the ramp to start his preflight checks. Hopefully the recruits had now got the hint and were preparing for their departure. Pasha was in the rear of the deck. He shouted back to him.
[color=#FFFF00]"While I'm doing this, explain what these halfwits need to do to survive please."
//OOC - recruits can now start posting what they are doing to prepare for the trial and your brief encounter with Major Ling and Pasha Byk. Tomorrow, we will be flying out to start the trial.
Jacob Forge, despite his posture, had been paying attention the entire time. Warfare of the mind. Make them think the contrary and stuff. As soon as Major Ling had finished speaking, and brandishing his formidable-looking sword (screw length, if he knows how to use it...was all Jacob thought) Jacob resumed packing. He had been recommended an Eastern Bloc assault rifle. After looking over it, Jacob decided to take a more familiar rifle, a Vindicator he had pried from the dead hands of his father during a pirate attack on thier transport. Checking his ammo, and making sure it was the required 60 rounds, Jacob checked to be sure the safety was on, and set it aside. He glanced around to see everyone else. He sighed. Jacob picked up his favored Raikou X sidearm. After checking it's clip was full, he set it aside. Jacob opened his pack. Neat, orderly. Everything where it should be for easy access. Jacob opened the side sheath and checked his survival knife. Nice and sharp, no grime, rust, or dirt. Satisfied it was ready, Jacob returned the knife to it's sheath. He stood up and stretched. Pops and cracks are heard. Returning to his pack, he went through his checklist. Two days worth of food-check. Two day's worth of water-check. Anti-rad meds where there. Everything else-check. Jacob double-checked it all. Satisfied it was there, Jacob stood, stretching more and rolling,his shoulders to get his light body armor to settle more comfortably. Then he checked for his last thing-the picture of Alyson. Jacob returned the picture to his pocket before shouldering his pack and waiting for the man to tell them how to survive.
Natsumi Hideyoshi (The Order) | Alexis Hunter (Liberty Navy) |
Lukas sighed. He'd been so intent on making sure all his gear was in order that he'd not noticed the major's approach and neglected to stand to attention. Sometimes, he forgot just how ruthless these people were. Never for long, though.
He resumed his examination of the rifle he'd been issued. "AK-63", stated the logo. He shrugged. The model number wasn't important to him; what was important was that while it looked like the most rickety and inefficient contraption since an old-earth trebuchet, once he'd picked it up and poked it a bit he'd found that it had a sturdiness roughly equivalent to a brick. He supposed that was good; at least if the thing wouldn't shoot, it'd be good to bludgeon things with.
His pistol, well, that was a different story. He'd had his Luger since his last week in the Rheinwehr, and it was accompanying him once again today. No need to worry about that; never had it even came close to jamming, let alone misfiring. He looked down at it in his hands again, finding its cold, metallic gleam familiar and reassuring.
He holstered his weapons and sat down beside his pack, lost in thought. He'd been on other training exercises before in the Rheinwehr, of course, but none were quite as drastic as being dropped out of the back of a (rather old) gunboat, parachuting down into an abandoned wasteland of a city, surviving on his own for days on end in this hostile environment, and making it to the evac zone. It hadn't even sounded that bad at first, until Lieutenant Stroganov had issued him with the mission briefing while they sat on Zhukovsky, looking out at JiangXi below. There had been about five pages on the actual mission details; the other forty-five or so in the fifty-page handout had been about all the things that could kill you and all the ways in which they could do it.
Oh, and they'd attached a one-page supplementary sheet on benign animals and edible plants. So that was reassuring, then.
He sighed again, rubbing his temples and recalling bygone days of training with his fellow servicemen in the Rheinwehr barracks on New Berlin. While that hardly compared to what he faced now, he hoped that his experience would at least help see him through.
Lachina was enjoying her smoke and looked around.This was one of the last ones she had and expecting to meet tobacconist down there at JingXi wasn't one of the things she did. While smoking she thought about what she heard about the planet she was going to. Nothing pleasurable, she thought while caressing her weapon.
Her decision was to take one of the models based on the famous AK-74 however, this one had a scope. The idea that she can take out the things before spotted was quite caressing her. She finished her cigarette and moved for another one but then stopped. She will need them more later. Lachina knew it. On her waist belt was hovering ammo with sheath hiding the along with her pistol.
She continued sitting on her backpack containing the waterproof poncho, gas mask, flare gun and food with water plus her light armor. Rest was hidden in various pockets in her leather jacket or her trousers. Lachina already spent a few weeks in Gaia's wilderness but this will be worse. Much worse. In this moment, deep in her own thoughts, she heard the major Ling. Almost falling down from her backpack she stood up and saluted noticing Ling's Jian.
The entire time the major Ling was talking, Olga’s thoughs were on a totally another place, the more she wanted to pay attention the more came out thoughs like: “What did I do?....”. Neverthless of her doubts about the mission what was waiting for the recruits, she knew how to survive on tough places. Her entire life she was fighting for survival, she visited many places, but she never stayed for long.
She watched how the fellow recruits were picking up the best looking guns what were available. After they all picked their guns, she came to the weapon holder, closed her eyes and took a gun.
It was Mosin-Nagant . She looked at it with a not-knowing look and put it on her shoulder.
She did the same with the pistol and picked up the ammo aswell.
The look on the half empty backpack didn’t give her any more courage for the mission. She looked inside. There was the usual stuff mentioned before and also a knife. She took it and tried whether its sharp enough…
She took the light armor. It was obviously weared by others already, a bit smelly , but It was still in one piece. Carefully she wanted to dress, but she forgot that she still had her gun on the shoulder. She realized it just after she got dress and fought with the armor and the gun for some time.
After she managed to win the fight she checked all her stuff and sat on the floor, looking at the others and remembered the recruitment procedure.
She was thinking, nothing could be worse than that.
Major Ling's preflight checks were completed, The Social Credit was ready to fly. He headed down the ramp, where a member of the recruits shouted that a senior officer was amongst them and they all quickly stood to attention.
[color=#FFFF00]"Better. We are ready to depart. Your gear goes in the over head locker and you lot will take any seat. It does not matter where you sit, when your time comes - you will be picked at random and then you will drop."
[color=#FFFFFF]The recruits hurried themselves along into the hold of the ship. The Social Credit had two banks of seats, one on the left of the hull, the other to the right. In the space in-between stood several boxes and towards the front of the hold there was a small jeep with an AK-1 on the back of it. Ling smirked at the jeep.. If only the recruits knew what that was for..
[color=#FFFF00]"Get strapped in folks."
[color=#33CCFF]"We've got clearance to disembark Major Ling." "Lijie, You take her out Lt Zupkauskas. I will finish off with the recruits then take the wheel when we enter the atmosphere." "Very good sir."
It stuck Ling as remarkable that for a name like Zupkauskas, the Lieutenant spoke in a near perfect Cambridge accent. As the ship shuddered and roared into life, Ling remained upright and stood holding an overhead handle. Quietly in his mind, he wondered if the handle would hold his weight on take off or if it would give. Such a situation would cause massive embarrassment in-front of the recruits. He might have to shoot any of them if they did laugh. However, they were soon in space, and Ling made his speech.
[color=#FFFF00]"Recruits. There are two ways I can brief you, the first is me trying to give you confidence. To be all warm and make you feel good about yourselves. However, If I did that, you would all die. Therefore, I will go the usual route. You will always find me harsh but fair, and there is no point lying to you about your chances on the planet below. Look around at your fellow recruits, this will be the last time you see some of them. You have mutated wildlife, the extensive radiation, the raiders and, we don't know exactly, but there may still be pockets of the Volkhan's death squads on the surface. Survive this, and you will have gone a long way to earning our trust and respect."
[color=#FFFFFF]The ship shuddered slightly as it began its descent.
[color=#FFFF00]"You will be dropped off, alone, to the north of New HangZhou. Up there is very mountainous terrain and thick woodland before you reach the dense Jungle that surrounds the north of the city. You may find a few old settlements in the mountains and villages in the Jungle. Do not linger for long. If you keep a quick pace, you can reach New HangZhou in a week. Once you are in the city, make your way towards the airstrip to the South-West. We will be waiting for you there. Good hunting!"
[color=#FFFFFF]He saluted the recruits and walked up the steps to the cockpit.
[color=#FFFF00]"How's she doing?"
[color=#33CCFF]"Deceptively easy to fly in space, you can be the judge in the atmosphere comrade Major"
[color=#FFFFFF]Ling dialed up the shields to full to take the extensive heat which greeted the SoCred as it entered the atmosphere of New JiangXi. It was a fine art getting any ship in and out of planetary atmosphere, a job made ridiculously simple by docking rings. The ship shuddered and roared as it slowed and descended towards the planet. Everyone was pushed firmly back into their seats. He heard several groans in the back, perhaps a few of the recruits did not have strong stomachs?
[color=#FFFF00]"Hmm.. we're in. Shields at 65%, Good. Lower them and take the stick Lt. Take us up to drop point Alpha and we'll fling one of these muppets down."
[color=#FFFFFF]He thought back to when he did his drop, it was a scary experience but it taught him so much. Yes, it was cruel - but space was cruel, and this was the only way to see what the recruits were made of.
[color=#FFFF00]"Hmmm... YOU!"
[color=#FFFFFF]He hauled the recruit up and read the tag on their uniform.
[color=#FFFF00]"Time to drop Recruit Drsnovova!"
[color=#FFFFFF]He laughed at the double meaning of what he had just said and strapped the recruit onto the zip line. He then stood back and spoke into his comm.
[color=#FFFF00]"Lt Zupkauskas, hover here and start the countdown!"
//OOC - recruits will RP being dropped from a zip-line into different sites on the mountainous terrain and then it's up to you.
This really wasnt the way she imagined to be "dropped".
She was just sitting at the edge, concidering the chances of survival on the awful planet down there...
But she didnt have time to think long and she felt that someone pushed her really hard ....
She scremed like a schoolgirl all the way down, tears were flowing from her eyes...
The whole way down was quick, soon she felt how she fell on the ground.
Becouse she didnt have any experience with a " Zip-line" she fell on the ground directly on her bottom, at least the ground was wet so it was a softly fall.
Master Chief Pavel 'Pasha' Byk had seem them come, he'd seen them go. He'd trained Ling, Rhade, Warner, Scott, Broch... even Katz back in the day. An ever loyal, ever diligent NCO, it was his job to turn the officers into men, and that was what he would do.
Walking with experienced space legs through the cargo bay of the Social Credit, as it bucked through atmospheric re-entry, he eyed each of the recruits, watching their choices of weapons, they selection of gear. Shaking his head as he flipped open an equipment locker.
"Each of you are going into a radiation zone," he yelled above the din as the rear hatch of the Social Credit slid down and open on the rushing air of the rapidly descending ship. "You need these!"
He began tossing each of them light gasmasks, completely oblivious to the din of the shrieking wind that flipped and tossed his open BDU jacket about him.
"It has only been two years, Radiation is highest around anything metal... so if you see a tank... run the other way... if you see a dog bowl... don't drink from it. You get the idea!"
He crossed the pitching deck, to open another equipment locker, "Don't tell the boss up there..." he yelled, gesturing up to the cockpit. As he tossed an extra box of ammunition to each of the recruits. "Thirty extra rounds... there are bunnies... killer bunnies... sure they look cute, but they are ferocious... the last run like this, they stripped a recruit down to his bare bones in under a minute." He laughed, "though they don't react well to bullets... lots of bullets."
He gestured to the jump zip line above him, "Hook up Comrades, today you learn all about the price of failure. And why we will never allow another JiangXi!"
He touched the headset earphone he was wearing, "Comrade-Major Ling... the idiots are ready to hurl themselves to their death now, you want I should say a eulogy, or just kick their asses outta your ship?"
[color=#FFFFFF]Ling looked down as the recruit hit the ground in a heap. He smirked and tapped his TAC-COM. The wind and noise from the open hatch meant he could hear hardly anything naturally.
[color=#FFFF00]"Heh.. Amateurs. Chief, you may continue with the drops. You can say a few words to each if you want, you might have to say something to that one down there."
[color=#FFFFFF]He pointed at the recruit.
[color=#FFFF00]"Seem's Drsnovova made a mess of her drop. I'll be in the cockpit taking us over to Drop Point Beta."